Cancer of the Heart
by pokemypoke
Summary: It had hit her like a thunderbolt the moment she stuck her shivering toes out of the shower. He had left his shirt.


Jessie was horribly, horribly ill. While she wasn't sure she would die from the sickness, she knew she would prefer it in such a moment as this. And in her defense, such moments could not come all too often.

"Ohhhhhh…you still smell like _him_," Jessie sighed into James's shirt.

It had hit her like a thunderbolt the moment she stuck her shivering toes out of the shower. He had left his shirt. She should have been mad or at the very least annoyed, but her brain began a game of connect-the-dots and imagined said shirt the moment it was thrown off of James's thin chest. She frowned at the image. It was nice. Too nice.

Huffing, Jessie threw down the offending garment and leaned her nude form against the doorway.

"Jessie?" a voice cried from the other side. "Are you okay? I thought I heard you say something."

"I'm fine!" she shouted, crinkling her fingers into her hair.

James went silent and Jessie shook her head. The thought of James padding about the single bedroom of the cabin had her woozy and she shimmied into her clothes with her body still wet. Her nightshirt clutched her breasts and she cursed before throwing an arm in front of her. Luckily for her, the night switch clicked off outside the bathroom door as she picked up her sopping towels and laid them in the hamper.

Upon entering the bedroom, Jessie immediately focused on her partner, who was throwing back the covers from the bed and scratching his head absently. The sickness came back with a vengeance. She barely registered Meowth seated in front of the TV with the game controls whipping about furiously in his paws. The room spun and spun until she thought she would fall flat on her face before reaching her side of the bed.

"Aren't you going to get your hair cap, Jessie?"

"I'm really tired," she said, plopping onto the bed and nuzzling her dripping nose into her pillow.

James frowned. "But what if it touches me during the night? It'll be slimy and wet and sticky and…"

"I'm not wearing it, James."

Sighing a displeased sigh, James moved under the covers. "Meowth? Are you coming to bed?"

"Gimme a few more minutes, Jimmy," he said, scooting closer to the screen. "I almost got a new high score!"

James chuckled and shifted until his blue pajama bottoms were barely visible in the moonlight. He was wearing a black shirt identical to the one lying forgotten in the bathroom and Jessie licked her lips. Did he always wear black to bed? More importantly, did she always notice?

"I think we were really close to catching that Pikachu today, don't you?"

"Yeah…close…" mumbled Jessie, still enamored with the feel of the pillow on her face.

"If we wake up early and make a few adjustments to the machine, we'll be sure to capture the rodent!"

"Mmhmm," she replied.

"Good. I'm glad we're on the same page. By the way, that was a really great escape today. If it wasn't for you, we probably would have been blasting off again."

_Oh God, oh God, oh God_. All the nausea in the world suddenly smacked her stomach and she shifted so that her back was to her partner in order to hide the warmth in her cheeks.

"Jessie? A-Are you going to sleep? Without a goodnight?"

Fury rose in her chest like a Fire Blast. "Goodnight, James," she said shortly.

The hand on her upper arm made her shiver almost as much as James's soft voice. "Goodnight, Jessie. Sleep tight!"

She sat there in boiling silence as James shifted to a more comfortable position on his back. _Thank Arceus_, Jessie thought, licking the water drops off of her lips. _Surely_ _sleep will cure this cancer of the heart._

With a triumphant grin, she closed her eyes and laid there in the darkness listening to Meowth huff and curse at the television screen. A moment passed and then another before the feeling of queasiness that had attacked her settled at the very top of her stomach and her heart sank.

"Ten minutes," she told herself, reverting back to a childhood trick she would use when sleep escaped her. "Ten minutes and I'll be out like a light."

Ten minutes came and passed without Jessie's knowledge. Meowth threw his game controller on the floor with a frustrated whimper that made James's sleeping form jump. It was only when their beloved scratch cat turned his game off that Jessie heard the unmistakable voices of the renowned _Pokemon Midnight_ that the hour hit her and she shuddered. Unless a rouge Drowzee hurdled through their windows and attacked her in the heat of the night, sleep would not come any time soon.

Meowth's feet slapped the floor all the way toward the bed and he let out an umph as he climbed up and onto the sheets. Feigning sleep, Jessie could not help but smile when he found a small clearing between his partners bodies and curled there as best he could with his odd limbs and his burning ego. Not a second had went by before she heard him snoring and her left eye began to twitch. If there was one thing her sick-laden mind had in common with her normal, devil-may-care mind, it was that James was the perfect sleeping partner. She had never heard more than a soft sigh leave his lips as he slept, no matter the angle or absence of comfort.

All thoughts of a good night's rest firmly destroyed, Jessie turned her head to eye her sleeping partner. James was sleeping soundly beside her with one hand at his chest and the other loosely holding the covers over his body. His mouth hung open, which Jessie should have found humorous. Due to her illness, however, she could only marvel at the roundness in his lips and wonder if he had ever been kissed before. She supposed having one's first true love turn out to be a dominatrix might have soured his views on women and kissing altogether, though she had never heard him speak of any other such romantic encounter to build her knowledge. Whatever the case was, James had undeniably kissable lips though his chin was far too pointed to provide a canvass for easy movement during make-out sessions. The thought that her sickness was back with a vengeance led her to sigh in defeat and shift ever so carefully so that a single arm could prop up her own chin.

"I don't like you," she said, not believing her own lies. "You're too skinny and too whiney and you always smell like girly shampoo."

James's sleeping form offered no protest to Jessie's accusations and she grew angry, though she would have been far angrier if he had shifted or blinked or breathed too hard.

"Why don't you go back to your fiancé? You could be rich! Gods above, you could be so stinkin' rich and it isn't even funny. I'd give up my freedom for that. I'd give it up right now if I had a chance."

A loud snort came from Meowth as if in agreement and Jessie's face turned hard and mean.

"What's wrong with you? Who takes the long road when there is a short one just sitting there for the taking? You could leave at any time…you could go and get married and get people like me to steal Pokemon for _you_. Yet you're here and…and so delectable I could melt. Damn you to Hades and back!"

She swore she saw his fingers twitch and fell silent for a long while before more words came bubbling to the surface from some God forsaken pit in the recesses of her hardened heart.

"Has no one ever told you it's not fashionable to wear pants that are so tight that anyone can make out the dimples on your bottom? And a cardinal sin to be too loose in the front?" She fell silent before shuddering. "Arceus. Strike me down now."

If Arceus had telepathy, Jessie would have wondered right then and there if the Pokemon had serious issues, for the insane, cancer-driven thoughts came to a head as James's face scrunched up and his right hand went down to push the offensive covers off his lithe body. He wore pajama bottoms that were far too big for him that had been yanked all the way past his belly button leaving minimal room for his most precious cargo. It was then and only then that her fingers itched to rectify James's heinous crime against fashion and settle his pants to his hips. Yes. That was it. Just fixing a problem like a good partner should.

With such a comforting lie, Jessie's hand sealed its fate by inching toward James like an Ekans on the hunt. When her fingers landed on his belly, she let out a sigh she hadn't been aware she'd been holding. She could feel water from her hand seep into his shirt and her heart raced. A few moments of Meowth's gargling passed before she allowed her hand to head south ever so slowly toward the end of James's shirt. When she reached her destination, she paused at the thought of her fingers being so close to her best friend's manhood. She bit her lower lip and closed her eyes before raising the shirt to sit mere inches from its original resting spot.

"That won't do, Jessie," she said to herself, shaking her slightly dried head. "If you start the battle, you gotta finish it out."

Nodding to herself to gather her courage, she reached over to her partner's side to pull up his shirt over his pants to finally reveal his pale skin that shone in the moonlight like the coin on Meowth's head. Letting the pad of her pointer finger graze the skin, Jessie closed her eyes and reveled in the warmth radiating from the body beside her. But the fire would not be quenched. Shifting her attention back to the offending pajama bottoms, she tugged and tugged until James's stomach laid half bare beneath his slanting sleepwear.

Dying a little inside at the inappropriateness of it all and urging herself forward in the name of fashion, she worked on the other side of the pajamas until resting the garment on their owner's bony hips. The entire time she kept a close watch of James's face and each time an inch of skin was revealed without consequence, her heart did a backflip. It was all so naughty and nasty and nice and it made her feel truly wicked to be undressing the man who had so often thrown barbs at her defenses and brought her insecurities crashing down at her feet. She needed him. That much she knew. But when she saw the love in his eyes rest on her before shifting confidently and calmly to Meowth, she buried her heart a little deeper inside. That is where it became sick, she reasoned, eyeing her partner before slipping her well-manicured fingers down his pajama bottoms. _I drove it down so deep that it had no choice but to bob up and choke all of my intelligence away. But it's just this once…only this once…_

His body was made of flesh stretched taunt and smooth against his bones and though the angle was off and a crick was quickly growing in her elbow, Jessie knew she could spend all of eternity exploring James's body. Such a medicine would surely cure her wandering hand and soothe the burning in her core. Her head ached with questions barreling back and forth in swift succession. _Does all of him feel like this? Would he hate me if he knew? Would he run away? Does he shave…_

"No," Jessie whispered as her fingers were greeted by a gritty mat of hair. The sound, healthy part of her mind cried out for James's innocence, but she was too far gone to take note. For a brief and horrifying moment, reality came crashing in on her with all the implications of her situation and all the nights she would have to spend ever after with this man who she had so severely violated. But the moment was brief and the sickness was strong. Her head feeling weightless and her arms shaking with a need she did not know had ever existed, Jessie allowed her hand to surface before yanking down the pajamas once and for all.

"Ughn…" she said aloud, letting the hand exposing her partner tremble. She was completely enthralled and utterly ignorant of her surroundings. His hair was blue and his member was long and he was there right in front of her unknowingly providing her with an image her mind could never erase. She stared and she dared to let her thumb run across the velvety skin topping the head of his penis. For the first time, the illness racked her entire body with a want and a need. She would never be rid of it…this desire to be fulfilled by the silly, feminine man with whom she could entrust her very being. She stifled a sob.

With large, dashing eyes, she looked up at him and felt her heart grow cold. Green orbs stared silently into her very soul.

"Jess…what…what are you…"

Her hand flew up and his pants fell down with a pop that made Meowth awaken in a groggy yet grumpy stupor. "Shaddup! I'm tryanah catch some zah….some zs here…"

Both trainers were silent as Meowth wandered back into slumber, but neither could be still. Jessie flipped her body so that her back was facing her partner and she felt terror clutch her throat as she felt James's side of the bed shift behind her. She heard a noise attempt to crawl from his throat that was stifled at the sound of Meowth's snores.

The three laid there for quite a while in such a position until James's body relaxed and Jessie closed her eyes against the hot tears crawling down her face. She attempted to breathe as if she were in a deep and wakeless sleep and after a while she felt the exhaustion enter her bones. It was in the last of her waking moments and in the stillest minute of the night that James spoke with a voice that was husky and low and led her into dreams of a white tomorrow.

"Looks like Team Rocket is jerking off again."

She never was cured of her disease.


End file.
